This invention relates to a method and apparatus for preparing and dispensing a combination of food products in a vending machine, specifically to automatic assembling two or more food articles with different preparation conditions in a single product and delivering it to a consumer. One specific application of the present invention is for use in a hot dog vending machine.
Automatic dispensing of hot dishes in public places raises numerous problems, especially when a food product comprises at least two articles with different optimal storage and preparation conditions. For example, for automatic handling of food products it is difficult to maintain adequate sanitary conditions comparable to the conditions of specialized production. Other problems, prohibitive for a vending machine, include a complexity of handling devices and relatively long preparation time.
Automatic hot food dispensing apparatuses are known in the art. Hot dog vending machines according to U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,794,384 and 3,117,511 store refrigerated sausage already assembled with a bun in a box. These vending machines pierce electrodes into the sausage to heat it with electric current. This method creates a health hazard as well as an inferior taste because moisture from the hot sausage enters the bun.
A machine for dispensing heated sausage according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,051,772 separately dispenses a piece of bread, packaged condiments, and heated sausage in two-part sleeve. The sleeve protects a sausage and the machine from contamination, but leaves actual preparation of a hot dog, which includes removing a hot sausage from the sleeve, to a consumer.
An automatic food dispenser according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,400,699, dispenses food components from trays joined together in a chain by a xe2x80x9cpeel-off xe2x80x9d tape which also serves as a lid for each of the trays. The chain is fed so that the trays are upside down above a receptacle with the tape peeled off in the immediate vicinity of said receptacle. A food component falls into the receptacle where it is heated and further discharged into one of the previously emptied trays. This arrangement provides for a simple dispenser, but it is not satisfactory for meat products because it reuses a tray without sterilization. Also, it has no provisions for combining separate food articles into a finished product.
A meal vending apparatus according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,485 stores refrigerated fully cooked meal packages, which include hot and cold portions, with the cold portions being protected by a microwave shield. The package is heated in a microwave oven before dispensing it to a consumer. Although the apparatus is capable of creating somewhat different thermal conditions for different kinds of food, it requires expensive packaging process and leaves the final assembly to a consumer.
A machine for dispensing food items according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,873,299 separately stores in a refrigerator a number of sausage packages and individually packed buns. Sausage packages are attached to conveyer carriers, which move intermittently on demand past opening and extracting devices. An opening device creates multiple cuts in the package top and bottom through which, after the next move, an extracting device pushes a sausage out. The sausage drops through an opening in the refrigerator bottom into a holder. The holder carries the sausage into the infrared heater. Boxes with buns are stacked in cassettes attached to a conveyer. After the holder comes to the heater, a pusher lifts the stack until upper box is against the holder. On its way back after the heating, the holder engages the box, pushes it past box cutter, and places the sausage into the bun through a cut created in the box. The box is further pushed onto an elevator that lifts it into a microwave oven. After the box with the sausage placed into the bun is heated, the elevator comes back and another pusher displaces the box into delivery cup.
Although the machine assembles two articles into one item and has different storage and heating conditions for different kinds of food, it suffers from a number of disadvantages. They include inefficient and hard to control infrared heating, undesirable cooling of a sausage after heating, lengthy cycle time as a result of sequential heating, cross contamination as a result of multitude of parts contacting and actually cutting into food product, very limited food storage capacity, complexity of food handling devices as well as, directly linked to it, sanitary and maintenance issues.
Furthermore, consumer""s waiting time is a significant consideration for the marketability of a hot food vending machine. Although preparation time can not be eliminated, it can be made enjoyable for a user. All of the above-described technical solutions have no provisions for entertaining a consumer during the preparation time.
Accordingly, objects of the present invention are:
to provide improved sanitary conditions in such manner that number of food contacting parts is kept to a minimum and the parts are automatically sterilized;
to provide a method which allows for decreasing preparation time;
to provide a view of the apparatus movements as means for user entertainment during the preparation time; and
to provide for both wider selection and greater capacity of food product in a vending machine.
Further objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing description and drawings.
In accordance with present invention a method for preparing and dispensing a combination of food products in a vending machine with a product delivery opening from a selection of components where individual components are prepackaged in a plurality of trays sealed with a single peel off tape comprising the steps of placing a support to a selected top component location while independently dispensing a tray with a bottom component by pulling the sealing tape over a tray guide positioned at 45 to 85 degrees angle clockwise in relation to the front plane of said vending machine, releasing top component onto said support by pulling the sealing tape under a guide positioned at 5 to 45 degrees angle clockwise in relation to said front plane, moving said support away from said guide in a direction to said front plane until said support is clear for lateral displacement, moving said tray and said top component independently along said front plane until they are laterally aligned with said delivery opening and means for thermal processing, moving said top component in a direction away from said front plane into a stationary means for thermal processing and heating the component while independently raising said tray into a moveable means for thermal processing and heating said tray; lowering said tray and displacing said moveable means for thermal processing out of the tray path, raising said tray past the moveable means for thermal processing while independently removing said top component from the stationary means for thermal processing and lowering it to a close proximity of said tray, releasing said top component into said tray, aligning said tray vertically with said delivery opening and said moveable means for thermal processing, and placing said moveable means for thermal processing in starting position.
Also, in accordance with present invention an apparatus for preparing and dispensing a combination of food products in a vending machine with a product delivery opening from a selection of components where individual components are prepackaged in a plurality of trays sealed with a single peel off tape comprising means for dispensing each of the individual components toward front of said vending machine; means for three-dimensional positioning of a releasable support for top components; means for tray lateral displacement; stationary means for thermal processing, moveable means for thermal processing, and means for tray vertical displacement laterally aligned with said product delivery opening.